Snape the Spy (WAS Re: Who was responsible for Sirius' death? ...)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 167728

houyhnhnm wrote:
> 
> The meeting on the day Harry arrived at 12 GP was a major meeting,
according to Fred, but I think the Order was alerted to Voldemort's
interest in the prophecy much sooner than that.  Ron tells Harry on
that first evening, while the meeting was still going on, that "some
of them are standing guard over something.  They're always talking
about guard duty." 
> 
> Also according to Ron, the blow-up between Percy and Arthur took
place "the first week back after term ended" when "We were about to
come and join the Order."  They must have been at 12 GP for about a
month before Harry joined them, although there is nothing to indicate
how long the guard duty had been going on.   But it is possible that
the Order knew Voldemort was after the prophecy within a couple of
weeks after LV's return to a body. And the information had to have
come from Snape.

Carol responds:
It's possible that the references to "guard duty" relate to what Harry
thinks they relate to, watching over him ("Couldn't have been me,
could it?") but given JKR's usual style of having her characters
provide plausible but incorrect (or only partially correct)
explanations, I think you're probably right. It seems likely from the
anticipation among the Order members and the excitement afterward that
they expected Snape to provide important information and that he came
through brilliantly. A crowd of people, including "Harry's entire
guard," even Mad-Eye Moody and Lupin, surrounds Snape as he leaves 12 GP.

And Snape leaves behind about a dozen scrolls, including the plan of a
building, which Bill belatedly Vanishes. Unless, for some reason
unrelated to the plot of OoP, Snape is giving the Order the building
plan for the Riddle House, it seems likely that the building plan is
that of the DoM, perhaps obtained for Voldie by Rookwood and stolen or
duplicated by Snape. If so, Snape certainly was risking his life by
obtaining that information and providing it to the Order. (And note
that Sirius Black never questions that Snape is risking his life; he
only chafes because he's not allowed to do the same.)

On another point, Alla mentioned Dumbledore's comment in GoF, "A
connection I could have made without help," in relation to the
Pensieve memory of Snape saying that his Dark Mark is growing darker
and adding, "Karkaroff's, too." It does sound as if DD is downplaying
the importance of Snape's revelation, and in front of Harry, too
(which I, for one, didn't like at all), but the memory does show the
reader that Snape is reporting to DD, and I don't think that DD could
have known about the Dark Mark itself growing darker without Snape's
telling him (he might have suspected it, but he couldn't have
confirmed it). The connection he could have on his own relates to
Karkaroff: if Snape's is growing darker, so is Karkaroff's.

We have evidence of other information that Snape must have provided to
DD as DD has no other spy among the Death Eaters. In VW1, he must have
informed DD that LV was targeting the Potters. He may also have
provided the names of the DEs who were arrested before Godric's
Hollow. Skipping forward beyond his planned return to LV after the
graveyard incident ("If you are ready; if you are prepared"), Snape
must have provided DD with LV's reaction to the diary incident. He
also clearly reported to DD on the Occlumency lessons or DD would not
have known that Harry was dreaming about the corridor and had a memory
of Rookwood and LV that was not his own ((OoP Am. ed. 829). And Snape
was evidently providing information to DD on Umbridge, too: If DD knew
that Snape had provided her with fake Veritaserum, he must have known
why Snape provided the fake Veritaserum in the first place (what
reason could he have except to thwart Umbridge's questioning of Harry
about DD's whereabouts or the Order?). And only Snape could have told
DD that LV had assigned Draco to kill him.

Dumbledore trusts Snape, and that trust seems deeper and stronger than
ever in HBP. That would surely be the case only if Snape really was
risking his life to provide information that no one else could provide
and at the same time concealing important information (such as his
sending or the Order to the MoM and the real nature of Dumbledore's
"serious injury" and his own role in preventing it from being fatal).

Carol, who thinks that as of HBP, DD had more than sufficient grounds
to trust Severus Snape completely, whether or not that trust was
justified (and I believe that it was)